Disney Is Already Planning ‘The Jungle Book 2’ With Jon Favreau in Talks to Return

Disney must feel pretty confident about The Jungle Book — Jon Favreau’s live-action / CGI retelling hits theaters on April 15, but early word-of-mouth is largely positive. And given Disney’s recent proven track record with live-action remakes of their popular classics, it sure does seem like The Jungle Book is on track to perform well at the box office. Just how well remains to be seen, but the studio is already developing a sequel with Favreau in talks to return.

According to THR, Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks are negotiating a return for The Jungle Book 2, even though the first film has yet to hit theaters. That certainly shows a monumental vote of confidence in Favreau’s film, which blends gorgeous CGI (like, really gorgeous; you’ve seen the trailers) with live-action to deliver an exciting retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s classic story.

Kipling wrote several stories about Mowgli, all of which were collected for the original Jungle Book in 1894. This was followed by another collection of Mowgli stories titled The Second Jungle Book, released in 1895. Among those stories is the tale of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the mongoose who defends a family from a pair of vicious cobras — that story was adapted by famed animator Chuck Jones as a half-hour TV special that aired in 1975.

So there’s plenty of material for a Jungle Book sequel, which is a fairly interesting idea since every adaptation has rehashed the same basic parts of Mowgli’s story with the same roster of characters.